Backpacking

Park offers chance for visitors to go wild (The Pantagraph) : HANNA CITY --Years ago, Brenda Pluskwik often took her kids to visit Wildlife Prairie Park off Interstate 74 near Peoria.

Unwind during a surprisingly affordable spa getaway to Mexico (The Buffalo News) : IXTAPAN DE LA SAL, Mexico –I've been oiled, salted, kneaded, toned, perfumed, prodded in the intimate reaches of my metatarsal pressure points. My thighs have jounced and bounced; my Third Eye and First Chakra have been pried apart.

Planner’s lifelong commitment to the outdoors pays off (Montrose Daily Press) : MONTROSE — Edd Franz is where he’s always wanted to be. Early on, the 46-year-old outdoor recreation planner of the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area eyed a career working in the outdoors with the federal government.

'Packrafting!' (Anchorage Daily News) : For 25 years, Alaska adventurer and Alaska Pacific University professor Roman Dial has used a packraft to explore corners of wilderness next to impossible to reach on foot. He's used the packraft in most of his 11 Alaska Wilderness Classics, perhaps the toughest backcountry race in the world.

Mountain measure. GPS equipment verifies Granite Peak's height (Billings Gazette) : It's official now, or is it just more official? The tallest mountain in Montana - Granite Peak - is 12,807.09 feet high, give or take 0.23 feet, according to a Billings crew's Global Positioning System survey on Aug. 16. The peak's exact location is latitude 45 degrees, 9 minutes, 48.34170 seconds and longitude 109 degrees, 48 minutes, 26.85554 seconds.

Backpacking News